Life and Correspondence of David Hume, Volume 2

David Hume · en
But I would not willingly start objections to these schemes,
     unless I had something to propose, which would be plausible;
     and I shall mention to you an idea which has sometimes pleased
     me, and which I had once entertained thoughts of
     attempting.[84:1] You may observe that, among modern readers,
     Plutarch is, in every translation, the chief favourite of the
     ancients. Numberless translations and numberless editions have
     been made of him in all languages; and no translation has been
     so ill done as not to be successful. Though those who read the
     originals never put him in comparison either with Thucydides
     or Xenophon, he always attaches more the reader in the
     translation; a proof that the idea and execution of his work
     is, in the main, happy. Now, I would have you think of writing
     modern lives, somewhat after that manner: not to enter into a
     detail of the actions, but to mark the manners of the great
     personages, by domestic stories, by remarkable sayings, and by
     a general sketch of their lives and adventures. You see that
     in Plutarch the life of Cæsar may be read in half an hour.
     Were you to write the life of Henry the Fourth of France after
     that model, you might pillage all the pretty stories in Sully,
     and speak more of his mistresses than of his battles. In
     short, you might gather the flower of all modern history in
     this manner: the remarkable Popes, the Kings of Sweden, the
     great discoverers and conquerors of the New World; even the
     eminent men of letters, might furnish you with matter, and the
     quick despatch of every different work would encourage you to
     begin a new one. If one volume were successful, you might
     compose another at your leisure, and the field is
     inexhaustible. There are persons whom you might meet with in
     the corners of history, so to speak, who would be a subject of
     entertainment quite unexpected; and as long as you live, you
     might give and receive amusement by such a work; even your
     son, if he had a talent for history, would succeed to the
     subject, and his son to him. I shall insist no farther on this
     idea; because, if it strikes your fancy, you will easily
     perceive all its advantages, and, by farther thought, all its
     difficulties.[85:1]